Vorelco's experience in loss prevention goes back to the 80's. We have designed dozens of products in this category from residential and commercial security technologies to the world's first electronic locking shopping cart called "The Wheel". The "Wheel" shopping Cart anit theft technology saves retailers millions.

Loss Prevention solution addresses cart loss

Often there is the problem of theft of shopping carts by pedestrian customers who use them to transport groceries to their home. Many end up in rivers and alleys. Shopping carts average between $75 and $100 apiece in the United States. One solution is to set up an electric perimeter around the parking lot.Sometimes the customer has to pay a small deposit by inserting a coin, which is returned if and when the customer returns the cart to a designated cart parking point. Some retailers sell “trolley tokens” as an alternative to coins. The mechanism can often be unlocked by inserting a key into the slot to open the lock.

Cart loss represnts nearly 180 million dollars a year in the U.S. and more municipalities pass abandoned shopping cart legislation, shopping cart containment systems are proving to be a viable cost effective solution. Shopping carts average $50.00 to $80.00 apiece depending on purchase quantity and materials used in their construction.

Shopping carts are frequently removed from store premises by patrons without the knowledge or permission of the shopping cart’s owner which is typically a retail food store. These wayward shopping carts are more likely to never be returned by the patron and have to be recovered by paid contracted shopping cart loss retrieval companies.

Shopping carts that are not promptly removed from public and private property other than a retail store property may be confiscated as provided by local or other statutes and held for redemption by municipalities or others. Some states however do not recognize carts left on private property as abandoned even though the property may not be that of the retailer, further hampering cart loss retrieval efforts.

Often the municipalities that perform their own shopping cart confiscation roundups and storage thereof do not always promptly or ever contact the respective owners of the seized cart inventories preventing the timely return of the much needed shopping carts.

To further exacerbate cart loss, some shopping cart retrieval service providers have been known to retrieve shopping carts from their own client retailer’s property and then charge the same retailer for their own “on premises” carts as if they were actually off premises and missing. Some missing shopping carts never make it back to their original owners due to theft and resale to other retailers with or without the knowledge of the purchasing party.

Smaller independent retailers as an almost accepted way of conducting business resort to scavenging shopping cart inventories from surrounding areas and from each other without regard to who might own the shopping carts due to the costs associated with maintaining their own fleets.

Larger retailers that maintain more than one operation in relatively close proximity often lose and gain inventories between themselves creating imbalances of deployable shopping cart inventories. This form of cart loss wreaks havoc on the industry’s ability to maintain any resemblance of control, custody and maintenance of their shopping carts often forcing retailers to purchase carts in a panic during periods of depleted inventories only to later be overwhelmed with excess inventories when the missing carts arrive at any point in time thereafter.

Typically the non-warehouse retail store operates on a 1% average profit margin. Many chains have elected to close high loss stores just because of runaway shrinkage from carts and merchandise. Others often remain in high loss areas regardless of running in the red just to maintain a presence in their respective communities.

Shopping cart loss according to the Food Marketing Institute “FMI” costs U.S. retailers over 180 million dollars a year which is passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. To address this staggering loss many an inventor including myself have concocted dozens of shopping cart security technologies over the years with only a small fraction capable of enduring the harsh operating environment of the common retail store.

The first successful shopping cart immobilization system was introduced in 1996 at a Lucky’s store in Costa Mesa California. This cart loss ending design was and remains an “all in wheel” configuration with no external parts. The product was trademarked “The Wheel” and several patents later it is in use all over the world.

A follow up copycat product to the wheel was introduced later that year by Carttronics now headquartered in Carlsbad California and was introduced almost side by side in neighboring booths with the “Wheel” at that year’s FMI trade show in Chicago.

The Carttronics cart loss dsolution was and remains a castor with a spring loaded high impact plastic scoop like cover that rotates around and over the caster and once the scoop reaches its end of travel it inhibits cart movement by friction.

This design was born of market intelligence conducted by Carttronics during a time when the “Wheel” experienced flat spotting on its locking castor when it was in early stages of beta testing.

To address what appeared to be an unsolvable dilemma at first glance, Carttronics went to work on an alternative approach not subject to flat spotting. Subsequently within a month the “Wheel”s flat spotting was remedied and now there were two companies vying for market share.

The “Wheel” was sold to “Gatekeeper Systems” in Irvine California in 1998. Market dominance is nearly split equally between Carttronics and Gatekeeper with one or the other taking the lead at any given time. Both the Carttronics and Gatekeeper devices operate on each other’s systems sharing the same wireless VLF command structure permitting partial or complete retrofit to one locking castor or the other without any hardware changes.

These cart loss systems work by immobilizing one or more of the shopping cart’s wheels when the cart is taken out of an authorized area of operation typically a retailer’s parking lot. Each shopping cart is fitted with one or more electronic locking wheels.

The shopping cart is secured by means of an on board receiver that detects and decodes a digitally broadcasted AM signal more specifically a OOK or “On-Off-Keyed” modulated signal that emanates from a perimeter encompassing transmission line. To avoid FCC certification of intentional radiators the carrier frequency is just under nine kilohertz.

Modulation of the OOK carrier is modulated in such a way as to mitigate spurious radiation or harmonics. The perimeter wire consists of 14 gauge traffic signal wire and is placed into a one inch deep saw cut trough about a quarter inch wide. Tar-like filler is then poured into the saw cut over the wire to protect it from weather and vandals.

The VLF “Very low frequency” carrier emitted from the perimeter wire can be adjusted for range or “capture area” at the loop driver which is simply a modulated amplifier. The onboard receiver consists of a micro power front end circuit consisting of a resonant tank circuit and a detector.

The entire circuit draws just a few microamps of current until it performs a “lock” or “Unlock” function which draws several milliamps for a brief period of time. The power source is usually a 3.2 volt lithium photo battery or 9V cell. To unlock or reset the locked caster or wheel the cart must be manually moved away from the perimeter wire’s field of influence enough to permit a much lower powered hand held remote to reset and free the secured wheel.

To alert store patrons of the security system, multi-lingual signage and sometimes a yellow line or pattern is painted near the buried perimeter wire to warn customers that their cart will stop if they attempt to travel beyond that point.

To prevent circumvention of the cart loss security device by simply tilting the cart to favor the remaining unsecured wheels, an anti-tilt bar is often deployed. This device acts as a frictional brake and makes it nearly impossible to overcome.Other less popular models use other sometimes unconventional means to disable a shopping cart.

One such device causes one or more of the front wheels to lock in a turning position limiting travel to a radius established by the locking angle. Another model by Mind quirx LLC slowly collapses the entire front end of the cart to the point where the front casters can’t function.

Although this design is more expensive than the rest of the field it is more reliable and safe as it does not succumb to tip over upon or after lockup. One short lived cart loss locking shopping cart castor from the mid 90’s by a company called Polytracker utilized a distance counter that would cause the castor to lock when it reached a site survey determined distance.

This castor would receive a “Start counting” signal at the retailer’s exit and when the count reached the preset distance the castor would lock. Unfortunately the designers of this device failed to consider the countless routes one can take when leaving a parking lot and just hoped the cart would not immobilize in an inconvenient location like a busy intersection or crosswalk.Other even less effective contraptions have been tried and all over the world. One such model was a castor with a downward extended finger that would catch on a minefield of strategically placed Lego-like blocks distributed about the perimeter of a retailer’s property.

Another attempted solution used a magnetically sensitive lever that would trip when the cart traversed a large mind field of magnets. All the patron had to do was slightly tip the cart back on its rear wheels and off he goes.

What no one was prepared for was the daunting task of removing metallic objects like paper clips, key rings, bobby pins, iron ore and other debris that would build up on the array of magnets.

Some retailers even resorted to placing bollards or poles about the store’s property to create a physical barrier small enough to trap shopping carts. This practice was soon halted after a landmark American Disabilities case was filed and won against Safeway Stores.

Author: Jack Durban, Inventor/co-inventor with Jeff Lace of the “Wheel” and is a cart loss prevention consultant specializing in asset tracking and RFID with over 200 product designs resulting in dozens of patents.

PROPRIETARY NETWORK BASED SELF LOCALIZING AND REPORTING

SHOPPING CART RECOVERY SYSTEM

by

Jack Durban

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a proprietary network based on and off premises self localizing and reporting, fixed or portable, shopping cart asset tag interrogating data logger exploiting GPS and or E-GPS as a means of providing latitude and longitude coordinates coincident with a time and date of the shopping cart at the time of its detection and or recovery. Shopping cart detection and or recovery event data is then either recorded securely into the memory of the shopping cart’s asset tag, any on or offsite cooperative interrogating means and or a shopping cart recovery event logging apparatus means. The shopping cart specific detection and or recovery event data may also be reported in real time or upon a predetermined schedule via wireless transmission to a secure server where subscribers can locate their shopping carts providing they where detected or recovered . Subscribers may consist of but shall not be limited in scope to retail store management, loss prevention personnel or services, shopping cart retrieval services, municipalities and the like. The shopping cart recovery event data may also be conveyed by a RFID and or EAS interrogating transceiver located at the retail store that owns or maintains the shopping cart upon its return or its eventual exposure to a proximate The cart recovery event logging apparatus may be handheld, fixed location, and or mounted to a vehicle more specifically a truck used to recover and return shopping carts to their respective owners, commonly referred to “cart retrieval services”.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Shopping carts are frequently removed from store premises by patrons without the knowledge or permission of the shopping cart’s owner. These wayward shopping carts are often never returned by the patron or others and have to be recovered by paid shopping cart retrieval service providers. Shopping carts that are not promptly removed from public and private property other than a retail store property may be confiscated as provided by local or other statute and held for redemption by municipalities. Often the municipalities that perform their own shopping cart confiscation roundups and storage thereof do mot always promptly or ever contact the respective owners of the seized inventories preventing the timely return of the much needed shopping carts. To further exacerbate this situation, some shopping cart retrieval service providers have been known to retrieve shopping carts from their own client retailer’s property and then charge the retailer for their recovery as if they were actually off premises and missing. Some missing shopping carts never make it back to their original owners due to theft and resale to other retailers with or without their knowledge. Smaller independent retailers as an almost accepted way of conducting business can resort to scavenging shopping cart inventories from surrounding areas and each other without regard to who might own the shopping carts due to the costs associated with maintaining their own fleets.

Larger retailers that maintain more than one operation in relatively close proximity often lose and gain inventories between themselves creating imbalances of deployable shopping cart inventories. This wreaks havoc on the industry’s ability to maintain any resemblance of control, custody and maintenance of their shopping carts often forcing retailers to purchase carts in a panic during periods of depleted inventories only to later be overwhelmed with excess inventories when the missing carts arrive at any point in time thereafter.

The retail industry loses tens of millions of dollars annually to long and short term shopping cart loss which is passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. The need exists for a means to permanently identify shopping carts and provide a means of providing accountability in the retrieval process by identifying the actual location of a recovered shopping cart at the time of recovery. The instant invention addresses this need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of this invention to provide an industry wide proprietary network based shopping cart detection and recovery system intended to offer never before realized shopping cart inventory control and visibility for all parties concerned from the owners, the relevant services, and those acting in the public interest working to reduce blight from displaced carts.

an integrated permanent machine-readable shopping cart identification tag or label and a means of recording the tag or label along with GPS coordinates and time & date stamp.

Thus in one aspect the instant invention concerns the use of an active, passive or hybrid thereof, RFID Tag permanently attached to or concealed within shopping carts that can be both operably readable and writable by fixed or portable proximate interrogating transceivers that detect and or exchange data with the active, passive, or hybrid RFID type Tags and log location, time and date of the data exchange. The active or passive RFID tag may consist of any type of known or unknown active or passive device that responds to a corresponding interrogating transceiver or transmitter with a unique identifying electronic serial number or other identifier distinguishing each tag from each other. The active or passive tag besides having a means of accepting, retaining and producing a distinguishing electronic serial number or unique identifier upon receipt of a corresponding interrogating transceiver may or may not also be capable accepting, recording, retaining and producing data other than a serial number or other identifying code. This data may contain valuable information about the shopping cart like date of manufacture, unique characteristics, materials used, lot code as well as other manufacturer, distributor or owner specific data that may be known or come to be known.

In preferred embodiments, the active or passive tag may also accept, record, and produce upon receipt of a corresponding interrogator, travel or other activity history while on or off the store owner’s premises in so much as the number of times it passed within readable proximity of any checkpoint or landmark, passageway, chokepoint or the like.

Offsite examples may include but shall not be limited to offsite shopping cart tag interrogating transceivers like public cart return corrals, municipal shopping cart holding facilities, public strategically located chokepoint interrogators, handheld interrogators, vehicle mounted interrogators and the like. A “cart recovery event” is defined as the act of physically taking possession of a shopping cart with the intent of returning it to the rightful owner for remuneration under some agreement or contract with a retailer.

Onsite examples may include but not shall not be limited to onsite shopping cart corrals, portable interrogators used by store employees or outside third party services, store interior interrogators, store exterior interrogators and the like.

As those in the art will appreciate, the instant inventory management and security system could easily apply to any wheeled vehicle.

These and other aspects of the invention are described below, while still others will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art based on the descriptions provided in this specification, which other shall also be within the scope of the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 Redacted

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

It has been recognized that it would be advantageous to develop and provide a an integrated EAS “Electronic Article Surveillance” based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control system to provide retailers and other providers of wheeled cart-like vehicles or hand carried basket-like containers to aid patrons in the selection, procurement and transport of goods while on the retailer’s premises. In particular, the present invention provides a network based shopping cart and shopping basket localization and security system intended to increase operational efficiency and reduce loss due to theft.

The invention will be now be described in relation to several embodiments depicted in Figures 1-6.

Referring now to Fig. 1, which depicts a typical an EAS based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control and security system relying upon the cooperation of one or more active and or passive tags mounted to or displaced within the shopping cart and or shopping basket structure and one or more strategically displaced stationary or portable EAS interrogating transceivers or “tag readers”.

Referring now to Fig. 2, which depicts a possible memory mapping of the Tag EEPROM.

Referring now to Fig. 3, which depicts redacted

* * *

All of the articles and methods described and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the articles and methods of this invention have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the articles and methods. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

All patents, patent applications, and publications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the levels of those of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains. All patents, patent applications, and publications, including those to which priority or another benefit is claimed, are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

The invention illustratively described herein suitably may be practiced in the absence of any element(s) not specifically disclosed herein. Thus, for example, in each instance herein any of the terms “comprising”, “consisting essentially of”, and “consisting of” may be replaced with either of the other two terms. The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention that in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Thus, it should be understood that although the present invention has been specifically disclosed by preferred embodiments and optional features, modification and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Redacted

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns an EAS “Electronic Article Surveillance” based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control and security system relying upon the cooperation of one or more active and or passive tags mounted to or displaced within shopping carts and hand carried baskets and at least one stationary or portable EAS interrogating transceiver or “tag reader”.

NON-PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION

entitled

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE SURVEILLANCE BASED SHOPPING CART

AND SHOPPING BASKET TRACKING APPARATUS AND METHOD

by

Jack Durban

CERTIFICATE OF MAILING BY “EXPRESS MAIL”

“EXPRESS MAIL” Label Number: ________________________________

DATE OF DEPOSIT: ______________________

I hereby certify that this paper or fee is being deposited with the United States Postal Service “Express Mail - Post Office to Addressee” service under 37 C.F.R. § 1.10 on the date indicated above and is addressed to: Mail Stop Patent Application, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.

Number of Figures:

Docket No.: JPD-006

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE SURVEILLANCE BASED SHOPPING CART AND

SHOPPING BASKET TRACKING APPARATUS AND METHOD

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an EAS “Electronic Article Surveillance” based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control and security systemrelying upon the cooperation of one or more active and or passive tags mounted to or displaced within the shopping cart and or shopping basket structure and one or more strategically displaced stationary or portable EAS interrogating transceivers or “tag readers”.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Shopping carts and Shopping Baskets, more specifically hand held or carried shopping baskets are very important to any brick and mortar retail establishment as a means of providing a convenient method of holding and transporting merchandise pending purchase as well as transporting merchandise from a POS “point of sale” terminal or cash register to the patron’s vehicle. It is well known in the retailing industry that maintaining a constant and ready to deploy supply of shopping carts and shopping baskets is imperative to keeping patrons happy. Often a patron dissatisfied in the unavailability of a shopping cart or basket will not return the offending retailer and will elect to shop elsewhere. Keeping track of shopping cart and shopping basket location and their respective quantities by geographic zone or location about the store property both inside and out, would provide the necessary data to enhance the readiness and availability of these critical shopping aids by alerting store personnel of pending shortages before they occur.

This data also saves considerable wasted time in unnecessary or untimely parking lot shopping cart roundups by store personnel that double as baggers, clerks and stockers. Accordingly providing a means of automated shopping cart and shopping basket inventory disposition about the store property accompanied by early warnings of pending inventory depletions would allow store personnel assigned the task or retrieving said inventories to focus on other much needed store duties like bagging goods, helping patrons and assisting in other retail operations until notified by the inventory management system that a roundup is warranted.

Shopping carts and Shopping Baskets, more specifically hand held or carried shopping baskets are also used in the commission of theft of the retailer’s goods and equipment when taken into areas like restrooms, changing rooms, closets, storage areas, and other areas where one can temporarily remain out of view of store personnel and security cameras. A strategically placed tag interrogating transceiver near cart and basket prohibited areas could alert store personnel that a patron has violated a “No cart/basket” area with a cart or basket.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of this invention to provide an integrated EAS “Electronic Article Surveillance” based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control system to provide retailers and other providers of wheeled cart-like vehicles or hand carried basket-like containers to aid patrons in the selection, procurement and transport of goods while on the retailer’s premises.

Thus, the instant invention concerns the use of an active, passive or hybrid thereof, RFID Tag attached to or concealed within wheeled carts and carried baskets and corresponding RFID interrogating transceivers that detect and exchange data with the active or passive RFID Tags. The active or passive RFID tag may consist of any type of known or unknown active or passive device that responds to a corresponding interrogating transceiver or transmitter with a unique identifying electronic serial number or other identifier distinguishing each tag from each other. The active or passive tag besides having a means of accepting, retaining and producing a distinguishing electronic serial number or unique identifier upon receipt of a corresponding interrogating transceiver may or may not also be capable accepting, recording, retaining and producing data other than a serial number or other identifying code. This data may contain valuable information about the host shopping cart or hand carried shopping like basket like date of manufacture, unique characteristics, materials used, lot code as well as other manufacturer or distributor specific data that may be known or come to be known. The active or passive tag may also accept, record, and producing upon receipt of a corresponding interrogator, travel history in so much as the number of times it passed within readable proximity of a checkpoint or landmark, number of times it came into readable proximity of a passage way, number of times it came into readable proximity of a point of purchase “POP” display or kiosk or any other point of interest equipped with a corresponding interrogator. A common crime known in the retail industry as “Pushout” consists of a thief pushing a shopping cart containing unpaid for goods right out the entrance or exit door just like a paying patron. To combat this crime that results in millions of dollars in shrinkage every year that increases the cost of goods for the honest patron a checkout counter mounted tag interrogating transceiver will arm or disarm an “OK to exit” bit or byte within the cart or basket’s active or passive tag. If the patron passes through an active checkout counter or isle and engages in a transaction his or her cart or basket will be sent the “OK TO EXIT” tag write command and upon exiting the store interior no alarm will sound. However if a tag equipped cart or basket arrives into the store and receives an “INBOUND STORE” tag write from the entrance tag interrogating transceiver and passes through the store’s exit without first receiving an “OK TO EXIT” tag write from an active checkout, the EAS alarm will sound indicating a possible attempted theft of goods. This stored travel history data may also be locally or globally stored at strategically displaced interrogating transceivers or by the system’s network respectively.

In preferred embodiments, strategically displaced fixed location interrogating transceivers may be deployed about the retailer’s entrance and exit doors, shopping cart corrals, shopping basket storage areas, dressing rooms, restrooms, cafes, and other areas deemed as important checkpoints, chokepoints, and areas where theft of goods are likely to occur at a location obscured of personnel and camera view.

As those in the art will appreciate, the instant inventory management and security system could easily apply to any wheeled vehicle and hand carried or portable basket or like device.

These and other aspects of the invention are described below, while still others will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art based on the descriptions provided in this specification, which other shall also be within the scope of the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates a representative redacted

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

It has been recognized that it would be advantageous to develop and provide a an integrated EAS “Electronic Article Surveillance” based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control system to provide retailers and other providers of wheeled cart-like vehicles or hand carried basket-like containers to aid patrons in the selection, procurement and transport of goods while on the retailer’s premises. In particular, the present invention provides a network based shopping cart and shopping basket localization and security system intended to increase operational efficiency and reduce loss due to theft.

The invention will be now be described in relation to several embodiments depicted in Figures 1-6.

Referring now to Fig. 1, which depicts a typical an EAS based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control and security system relying upon the cooperation of one or more active and or passive tags mounted to or displaced within the shopping cart and or shopping basket structure and one or more strategically displaced stationary or portable EAS interrogating transceivers or “tag readers”.

Referring now to Fig. 2, which depicts a redacted

I claim:

1. A xxxxx, comprising:Redacted

according to claim 1, wherein the redacted

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns an EAS “Electronic Article Surveillance” based shopping cart and or shopping basket inventory control and security system relying upon the cooperation of one or more active and or passive tags mounted to or displaced within shopping carts and hand carried baskets and at least one stationary or portable EAS interrogating transceiver or “tag reader”.